Chay Yew’s characters in “Wonderland” and “Porcelain”, who are desperate to find love and connection with those around them, explore various notions of being “queer”. They are not just queer but they are also “queer”, as their lives are filled with tragedy, death and violence. Most importantly, they’re survivors. But, like “queer”, the word has many meanings.
Yew’s porcelain has a protagonist named John who kills his lover inside a public toilet. In this play, scenes are interspersed with a tale John’s father used to tell him as a child about a lonely sparrow who wanted to live next door, among the graceful and happy sparrows. The crow, who was an outsider in appearance and behavior, flew over to live with the sparrows. After realizing he’ll never be accepted, the crow returns to its home. His experience, however, has made him different. It then flies off to find another family and a new life. John, among many other characters, embodies the metaphor of the crow amidst sparrows as they seek a new life with a different family.
John feels gay, like an outsider in a crowd of outsiders. He is both homosexual and Chinese. John’s father told an interviewer, “I have only one son.” Lone. I don’t understand why John-English is his new name. You could be more like your English school friends, and not be different. Model yourself after them (84). Yew calls his protagonist “John”, a term used by many hustlers to describe their clients. This name also relates to the tendency of his character to perform sex act in public restrooms. John wants to change how others see him by changing his name. He also hopes to blend in with the sparrow family. John’s identity is a barrier to his assimilation.
John’s father mentions that John used to be a waiter at the restaurant. He says, “Deep in my heart, I am sure he hates it here.” Don’t remind him of his past. What he is. I am from Singapore. I left in the 60s. I gave up everything to make sure my children had a good time in England. John’s Father, like a crow, is always moving from one place and another to find a better future. After his children are grown and have become accustomed to the English way of life, John’s father realizes he does not know his children. His daughter has a lot of white boyfriends, while his son is involved in a scandal involving homosexuality. They both seem out-of-touch with their Chinese identity. John’s Dad feels shamed by the fact that everyone knows his gay son. He is also afraid of how his family and himself will be perceived.
John confesses to wanting to be white in order to feel more at home. He says “pictures of handsome and white guys hugging each other, kissing one another, holding their hands together, like they’re meant for eachother, are shown in magazines.” Always white men. She was always content. John envies those white gay males who are happy and receive love. He views love to be a means to finding self-acceptance. His Chinese identity is what he feels prevents from being loved and connecting. John and father have very strong feelings towards their Chinese cultures. John is against this part of him, while his father wants to maintain it for his own life and the lives of his children. John’s dad feels the same shame as his son because of his homosexuality. But instead of accepting him, he turns away from him.
John and the lover meet in a “cottaging”, a queer, public-yet-private space. John reveals he hates using the public toilets, but that “[he] simply wants to hold these men”. For a while, they are… Then, [he] takes a very hot shower. Every memory, every scent, and touch are washed away. It never leaves him. It doesn’t matter how much or how often [he] washes. The filth, dirt penetrates deeply into [his] body” (60). John’s dirty feelings after a sex act in a public restroom are also referred to as filth. The washrooms allow him to be physically affectionate despite his skin color, race and identity. The sensations are only fleeting and it is just skin. William Hope, however, fulfills his longing for a closer connection.
William Hope, whose last name is William, is the answer to John’s prayers and hopes. He takes his place with the sparrows. Will rapes John in an attempt to dominate him. John accepts Will’s abusive behavior as part of belonging and love. John’s love is influenced by this treatment, and he shoots Will because he feels Will “belonged” to him. John was the only one (95). This play has two different meanings of “belonging.” To “belong,” you can either be an object that belongs to another person, or “belong,” you can be part of a bigger group such as a family, and fit in. Yew comments on the materialistic nature of society’s language about love, relationships and transient things such as love and sex. And the only people who possess no one are the gays who live outside the social acceptance circle, away from their homes.
Will rejects John and ends their relationship by saying, “I am not gay, Johnny!” I’m a different kind of person. “I- I have absolutely no ill will towards you or your kind at all.” (96). Will reinforces John’s status as an outsider by separating himself from him. John is, in essence, a crow among sparrows who is only able to stay for a short period of time. John’s feelings of love are nullified when Will denies their connection. John is left with a feeling of homelessness and belonging that is no deeper than the stench of public toilets. John is, yet again, a gay-alone, because he has a Chinese heritage and is homosexual.
John does not give up Hope. The criminal psychologist tells John, “He’ll be never gone…[and that] he finally [has] Will for [him]self (110). John, while incarcerated in a Japanese prison, folds 1,000 paper cranes, hoping to make his wish come true. John continues to search for love, acceptance and belonging by moving from one bird family to the next. This tragedy has left a deep impression on him and his family, but he never loses hope. John, who is smiling, holds a crane out to the audience in the last scene. Yew gives his character the wish he wants by making an audience feel connected to him. He queers them and asks them to look beyond their own racial/cultural, social, or cultural position and to show empathy.
In Yew’s “Wonderland”, an American family of Chinese descent struggles to find a place for themselves. In one of the scenes, the father brings his son to the spot where the sun reflects on the ocean and describes it as “God’s wonder-A yellow brick path… A magnificent gold carpet” (317). This carpet is a symbol of a welcome mat and a way to achieve the family’s dreams. In the play, characters chase their dreams, but they find out that these are intangible, and as fleeting as sunlight across the ocean.
The Woman, a character from the movie “Sandpiper”, is a woman who comes to America with her husband. She tells him “America has to be exactly as in movies like Sandpiper. In that film [Elizabeth Taylor] was living in a beachhouse near the sea. We need to live near the sea. We must. She bases her dream of America on Hollywood images, which are illusory. She lied about her pregnancy to get her husband to marry her so that he would take her to America. She is unable to comfort or support him as his life experiences alter him. The relationship between them becomes strained. The two also drift apart as their Son grows, and she doesn’t get his Americanized ways or animosity toward his Chinese background. When she sees her child kissing a boy, she is upset. She feels that he has not lived up to the ideal she had for her family.
The Woman is also intangible in her dreams to find a home in America. She tries finding work as a store salesgirl, but is rejected by her employers because of their racism (306-307). She is not hired because she cannot read or write well. They see her as an outsider who does not belong in Singapore. She is queered by her son, who mocks her Chinese influences and fractured English. She begins to spend less time in the Sandpiper as her family falls apart. At the end of the drama, she is both literally homeless and metaphorically. She sleeps inside the mall that was built by her now dead husband.
The Man is also looking for his place in America and the world of architecture. The Woman, his wife, calls him a “Model Minority Always polite, quiet, mister don’t rock-boat, like he’s a guest in someone’s home” (327). Since childhood, he has felt a sense of isolation due to his Asian heritage. He is teased by his classmates for his race, and when his employer sends him on a business trip to China, he assumes that his ability to communicate well with the Chinese will make it easier for him. He does not challenge these racist standards because he doesn’t want to offend others or make waves. Ironically by not taking a stand he has made himself an outcast and has queered himself.
He is given only malls to build, despite the fact that he has dreams of skyscrapers. The Man adapts to the assignments and builds “Wonderland”, a super-mall that earns him recognition. He compromises on the other parts of his dream because he imported more expensive materials, such as Italian marble, teak wood, and titanium, which ultimately leads to deaths. After the death of the people in his mall, the Man’s compromise with the materials he used for the construction is paralleled to the Man’s compromising his dreams. He loses his building license and is no longer able to build any structures. This experience will leave an indelible mark on his soul. His wife won’t recognize him anymore. The scandals that followed the deaths further queered him. He was viewed as a criminal and went from being an active member of society into a depressed drunk with a broken home.
The Son is also struggling to find his place as a Chinese American son. He feels like a strange, hybrid. In his early childhood, he describes to his father the way other children called him “ching chong Chinaman chingchongchinaman” at school. As a child, he tells his father that the other children at school “come up run up to [him] call [him] ching chong chinaman ching chong chinaman” (330). The Son is then separated from his mother because she represents everything he dislikes. The Son falls in lust with George his best buddy because of his homosexuality. When the son tries to express his feelings to his father he is stopped by his father quoting Leviticus Twenty Thirteen. And after “The Man…mutters that magic verse…he hasn’t got a son” (386). Like John in “Porcelain”, the Son is also an outsider because of his double otherness. His classmates won’t accept him for being Chinese and his Chinese parents won’t accept him for being homosexual. The family has similar experiences to Chinese Americans who live in America but is unable support each other and cannot connect.
He also feels disappointed in his family for not supporting his dream to become an actress. He is asked by his mother “Why? Why? If you can’t be a doctor, lawyer engineer architect or someone else, then better not! “If you cannot become a lawyer or a doctor then be an architect!” (388). The Woman thus queers her Son, by forcing him into an identity or occupation he doesn’t want. She implies he’s too queer for her to be his son if he’s not what she wants. The Son’s queerness could be overcome by incarnating and personifying a variety of people. He would feel more comfortable with himself and others, allowing him to finally let go of how they judge him. His racial issues are never addressed because casting directors cast him in stereotyped Asian roles. He is a hustler, who lets his clients have sex “without protection” because it makes him feel better. As a boy, the Son’s father used money to replace his love and presence. As the Son gets older, his love for money becomes confused with his desire to be loved.
Yew titled the play “Wonderland,” to make a connection between the American Dream and the super-malls that Man builds. The mall is an area of consumerism, capitalistic endeavors and the American Dream is built around the idea that anyone, no matter how humble their beginnings, can find fortune and money. The American Dream is a myth and a misnomer, mainly because it’s just that: the American Dream. No hyphenated Americans are allowed. The term “Wonderland”, then, is meant to represent America not just as a magical and exciting land, where dreams may come true, but the emotions America instills within a family. These include hope, anxiety, a continual wondering of the bright future, and the American dream. The family’s hopes and dreams also crumble as Wonderland collapses, taking with it many lives.
At the end, the Woman will meet her son at the ocean where he drowned. The sun is setting over the ocean. The Son then asks his Mother if she has seen it. She replies, “Yes I do I see” (454) and this is the end of the scene. The words “Yes Yes I see I see” (454) are a double symbol of her ability to observe the sunset and also the distance between her dreams and the reality in which she lives. But they both have. The Son, who is a veteran actor, has already appeared in a couple of films. He looks at the golden rug and sees a future that’s brighter. Together, the two dream of happiness.
In Chay Yew’s works, the word “queer” can be used to describe any of these definitions: homosexual men, people who have a different or lonely outlook on life, and their feelings of being worthless. Although his queer protagonists are marginalized members of society, their tragic lives make them stronger. They try to connect to others again and again, and to understand and empathize with them. Though they find themselves unable to integrate into the society in which they live, it may be possible for them to look past the surface of the situation and connect with one another.
